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Art | Anton Alverez’s ‘The Extruder’ and its Structured Improvisation

04.05.17

STOCKHOLM — Swedish-Chilean ceramist Anton Alverez originally set out to be a cabinet maker, eventually studying interior design and architecture. During his education, he honed his focus for structure and his acuity for process, eventually creating tools to streamline that process.

Alvarez’s work focuses on the design of systems and the creation of tools and processes for producing products, objects and architecture.

It makes sense with Alverez’s background that he would develop this 3-ton ceramic press — a promethean beast that would afford him an observational hands-off approach to his work.

The machine is part of a new direction for the studio to explore more autonomous manufacturing system. The creator, Anton Alvarez, has distanced himself from the making process and now surveys his machine in operation and, in communication with the person operating the machine, create object without physically being involved.

The objects created are part of a series called Alphabet Aerobics. Each, a product of The Extruder’s piping and swirling structured improvisation of the ceramic form — an variable-heavy experiment in the innate kinesthetic and tactile qualities of ceramic creation.

In the Spring 2016, the National Centre for Craft & Design’s Main Gallery was transformed into a working ceramics factory complete with The Extruder, drying racks and two tons of clay and gallery employees-turned-factory-workers. The gallery became an extension of Alvarez’s studio throughout the 3-month-long exhibition, during which objects were made daily.

Check out The Extruder in action:

Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Whitney Jones

Whitney Jones is a journalist and contemporary dancer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Driven by the inherent social, economic, and political breadth of physical expression, Whitney enjoys work that challenges traditional notions of line, form, audience, and performer.